The present invention relates to the purification of natural gas, particularly, but not exclusively, before its transport and/or its liquefaction.
Natural gas, whether in the form of gas combined with crude oil or dry gas, frequently contains, on leaving the production field, certain undesirable components such as water, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, at least a major part of which must be removed before certain operations such as, in particular, transport and/or liquefaction of the natural gas.
Numerous processes have already been proposed for purifying natural gas and more particularly for purification with solvents, but these processes require large installations such as absorption columns, which are costly and bulky, and incompatible with deep-sea exploitation or with offshore gas fields or deposits of oils and associated gas, both on account of the technical problems raised by the bulkiness and the exploitation, and of the economic problems.
The future development of the world gas production depends, among other factors, on the development of simpler and less costly processes for purifying the natural gas.